Episode 239 - Playwright Spotlight with Laura Thoma
Episode 239 Show Notes
– Currently Reading –
We Show What We Have Learned & Other Stories – Clare Beams (EF)
Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World – Matthew Goodman (CW)
The Correspondent – Virginia Evans (EF) recently nominated for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
– Just Read –
At the End of the Passage by Rudyard Kipling from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook)
Buckeye – Patrick Ryan (EF) (release date 9/2/2025)
Summer on the Lakes from Margaret Fuller: Collected Writings (LOA #388) – co-edited by Brigitte Bailey, Leslie Eckel, and Megan Marshall (CW)
Nanaville – Anna Quindlen (EF)
The Belgian Girls – Kathryn J Atwood (CW)
How to Say Babylon – Safiya Sinclair (EF) (audiobook)
Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier (EF)
Join Emily’s buddy read over on Goodreads.
– Biblio Adventures –
Follow along with Chris’s Margaret Fuller Reading Schedule.
Emily finished reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and watched the 1940 movie adaptation.
Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to the New Haven Public Library for the launch of the New Haven Memory Lab.
Chris spent time at the New York Public Library’s main branch working in the archives.
– Upcoming Jaunts –
Emily is heading to Madison, WI and Minneapolis, MN to celebrate The Gentleman Caller’s birthday. She’s hopping to stop at three bookstores: Mystery to Me, Magers & Quinn Booksellers, and Wild Rumpus Books.
Chris and Emily are heading to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on August 13th.
Emily registered for an event with Janice Nimura in conversation with Jessica Francis Kane about her new novel Fonseca at RJ Julia Booksellers on August 14th. Learn more about it here.
Chris is heading back to the New York Public Library for more time in the archives and will meet Kate at the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station to discuss their buddy read of Silas Marner by George Eliot
– Upcoming Reads –
Nightmare-Touch by Lafcadio Hearn from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook)
All the World Can Hold – Jung Yun (CW) release date 3/10/2026
Listen to our conversations with Jung on Episode 104 and Episode 142
Fonseca – Jessica Francis Kane release date 8/12/2026
Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner – Natalie Dykstra (EF)
Ladies in Waiting: Jane Austen’s Unsung Characters – with an introduction by Adriana Trigiani (CW)
– Playwright Spotlight with Laura Thoma –
Laura talks about her play-in-progress Letter to My Soul which will premiere at the GreenStage Guilford Live Arts Festival on August 10. Find out more here.
Learn more about Laura’s other work here.
– 2025 Readalong Theme and 3rd Quarter Book –
The 3rd Quarter Readalong is The Upstairs House by Julia Fine. The Zoom conversation will take place on Sunday, August 17th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join. You can join the online conversation via the Goodreads discussion thread. We are also planning a companion read of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Our theme for 2025 is Ghost Stories! Click here to follow everything Ghost Stories 2025.
There is a ghost story discussion thread on Goodreads. Come tell us about your favorite ghost stories or those you are interested in reading.
Over the course of the year, we will be reading The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce, one story at a time. If you would like to join us there is a schedule available on Goodreads or we can email a copy.
– Also Mentioned –
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
The Garden by Clare Beams
Books by Ann Patchett: Bel Canto and State of Wonder
Also by Rudyard Kipling: The Jungle Book and Riki Tiki Tavi
“Daddy” by Sylvia Plath
Also by Daphne du Maurier: The Birds and My Cousin Rachel
Birchbark Books
Also by George Eliot: Middlemarch and The Mill on the Floss
Also by Jung Yun: Shelter and O Beautiful
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